By reenee, Santa MariaWay back in the Dark Ages when I was a kid in school, there was never a good reason for students to get up from their desks and wander around at will. Permission was required to even scratch our noses, so if we did get up, we'd better be on fire. If the teachers were scary and humorless nuns, we'd have willingly burned sitting at our desks, it would have been a less painful death than to cross them. Most all of us students would simply sit there and do what we were told. If we didn't study, we were given a failing grade. If we failed to learn, we flunked. Ah yes, memories of accountability.
These days however, there's an experiment going on in Rochester, Minnesota, where kids are allowed to stand, sit or lie on the floor. The last time I actually saw a student on the floor was during a tantrum. One of the goals in this classroom is to get kids to move around. In a study that might even combat childhood obesity which in itself has become a big problem, researchers are trying to figure out the reasons for the general slippage of what is learned by students in twelve years of school. This classroom allows children to walk around, balance on big exercise balls, or even lie down on mats. In addition to being allowed to move around, they have access to laptop computers, a wireless network and iPods.
So far, the classroom teacher, Phil Rynearson and Superintendent Jerry Williams say that these fourth and fifth grade students are more focused on the subjects being taught than their peers in a comparison group in an ordinary classroom. Plus, there are fewer distractions than in the traditional setup, where a lot of time is spent trying to get children to sit still. Interesting. To be sure, something has to be done, now that children are advanced to the next level whether they learn or not. If you check out the average high school kid, you will see quite a few deficits in their abilities. I'm talking about the average kid here, not the ones that remain focused on their studies either out of an innate ability to do so, or because they are encouraged and helped by their parents.
Let's face it, not enough parents are invested in their child's education. There are some that feel that getting their children to school every morning ends their participation and responsibility. You know the ones, they blame the schools when their child fails to learn. I certainly do not have all of the answers, but I spent ten years in the school system working with parents of fifth and sixth grade students, trying to get them involved, and I made one important discovery: You cannot fix stupid. I have seen college educated parents who remain clueless and disinterested about their children or their education, and I have seen high school dropouts who are extremely involved in their children's education, because they desire something better for them.
This study is at least a good start into how they learn, or at the very least, why they don't. The added plus is combating obesity. My humble opinion on that of course is the fast food available in an age where both parents are required to have jobs just to keep their heads above water, along with the technology that allows kids to remain in one spot all day long. Nothing like a good bag of chips or a hamburger and a Gameboy to deaden the brain. Ah yes, gaming, now that's a good skill to have to enable a student to go to college and then someday get a good paying job, huh?
